November 14, 2024

Another book finished! Publication forthcoming in 2025

Literary life for me lately has been busy, busy, busy. I realise I haven’t posted an update in 6 days. I normally try to blog every 4 days or so, but the delay has been for a good reason.

I’ve finished another book! Hurray, happy dance!

This one is a collection of ghost stories and is just under 50,000 words – so, about the length of a short novel. I finished the last story on Sunday and spent Monday reading through the whole collection to check for typos and consistency. On Tuesday I began typesetting the paperback and formatting the cover. Yesterday I finished uploading the proof and ordered a copy for my editor. The copy should come in the post next week ready for the red pen treatment.

In the meantime, it’s business as usual. I’m still chipping away at novel WIP#7, which is at 56,858 words, and novel WIP#8, which is at 51,734 words. Those two manuscripts have taken a back seat lately while I prioritised the story collection. It’s about time I gave them some attention.

Next year, I’ll be back to being a one-book woman. All this juggling is too much to keep track of!

Posted by on November 14, 2024 in Books, Writing and tagged , , , , , , .

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November 8, 2024

My books on a library tour of Northern Ireland

It’s always lovely to check into Libraries NI and find out where my novels are currently being borrowed. It makes me so happy to know that readers are discovering my books among the shelves, and that they’re finding their way out of Belfast and across the country. Here’s where they’re currently all on loan:

The Blue Man is in the Belfast Heritage Writer’s collection, on the shelves at Hollywood Arches and Newtonbreda libraries and is on loan at Portrush library.

The Fairy Lights is in the Belfast Heritage Writer’s collection, on the shelf at Newtonbreda library and on loan at Ballycastle library.

Matthew’s Twin is in the Belfast Heritage Writer’s collection at Belfast central library and one copy is out on loan.

The Buddha’s Bone is on the shelves at Belfast central and Newtonbreda.

Gods of Avalon Road is on the shelves at Ormeau Road library and Belfast central, where it was currently in the Halloween display.

Authors, did you know…?

If your books are eligible through the Public Lending Right service, you get paid for every time a reader borrows your books from a library? The payment is similar to getting paid for readers who download your books on Kindle Unlimited.

I must say, knowing that readers are borrowing my books is a welcome dose of motivation to keep writing. Even though the payment from the Public Lending Right fund is less than readers buying my eBooks, paperbacks or hardcovers outright, it makes me feel good knowing that readers who may not be able to afford to buy my books can still access them. Books are for everyone!

Posted by on November 8, 2024 in Reading and tagged , , , , , .

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November 4, 2024

Happy November! Another new bookish venture this month

November is here. A few years ago I used to find November a depressing month after all the fun of Halloween and before the bright lights of Christmas. But as a Halloween aficionado, I enjoy keeping the spooky decorations up until mid November before switching over to the yuletide ones, and I find all the seasonal cheer keeps my mood up in the darker months. Especially with seasonal affective disorder so prevalent here in the northern hemisphere with the shorter days, any extra lighting certainly helps. It’s good to be mindful of things to keep one’s spirits up.

Starting a new position certainly helps with that too. My new bookish venture for November is that I’m starting a part-time library post in addition to teaching creative writing, which I started last month. I will soon be in book paradise, hurray!

I wonder if working in a library will mean that I won’t be shopping for books as much, seeing as I will have no excuse not to borrow more books? Hmm. Only time will tell…

Posted by on November 4, 2024 in Biography, Random stuff and tagged , , , , .

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October 31, 2024

Happy Halloween! Samhain is here and the ghosts are coming

Spooky book shopping in Bangor

Samhain blessings, folks! It’s finally here…my favourite seasonal holiday of the year. Today the veil between this world and that of spirit (if you believe such things) is at its thinnest. This means that ghosties, ghoulies, and all things nasty can travel freely to pay us a visit. I’ll bet the horror lover in you enjoys that notion as much as I do.

I say that, but have to admit, I have never spent the night in a haunted house. No, I am a haunted house neophyte. Is that going to change any time soon? Erm…nope. My imagination is bad enough, thank you very much.

Yes, I can happily summon a demon out of the darkest depths of the corner in my bedroom without having to resort to a seance, or staying in a poltergeist-ridden hotel, or devising any other such supernatural scenarios to stimulate the thrill-seeking part of my brain. My overactive mind, saturated as it is by caffeine, provides enough terrifying fodder for my many horror books.

More spooky book shopping in Belfast

Why do I love horror? I’ll get into that in another post. Why do I love Halloween? Because it is an unsentimental time of year that allows us to look at the darker aspects of the world instead of having to deny that they exist and pretending like everything is roses. Halloween lets us celebrate death, which is a natural part of the life cycle.

Speaking of death, allow me a morbid thought today of all days, when the veil is thin. I’m an author. Like any author, I’m hoping that my books will outlive me. Is that depressing? I don’t think so. Writers create work in the hope that a piece of that work will live on. Even when I am worm fodder in the soil, pushing up daisies, who knows? Maybe some of my books might linger. I’ll be haunting the legal deposit libraries (The British Library, etc) watching over them for sure, ha ha!

And on that macabre note…

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Posted by on October 31, 2024 in Opinion, Random stuff and tagged , , , , .

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October 28, 2024

Is Halloween satanic? Hell no!

Okay, so this post was fuelled by frustration. As you all know by now, I am an avid Halloween fan. A passionate lover of all-things-Samhain. A few days ago, while at yoga class, I happened to be dressed head to toe in my Halloween best (as you do). The woman on the exercise mat next to me eyed my spooky leggings and T-shirt with a nervous eye and quipped, “you must love Halloween?” to which I replied that, why yes, I do love Halloween and have so many Halloween outfits; enough for every day of the month. She then went on to say, “You must have Christmas outfits too?” to which I responded that I happen to have one dress.

Later, after the class was finished, the same awkward woman happened to enter the ladies toilets as I was about to leave. She saw me, smiled, and backed out, murmuring that she would use the “other bathroom as I’m in a rush”. A likely excuse. It was obvious from how her roving eye perused my clothing that my choice of Halloween attire was the real reason why she so needed to find another restroom. Cue eye roll, forehead slap, enough said.

Or not. Why, the expletive deleted, do some narrow-minded people consider Halloween to be Satanic? That is the only reason I can possibly think of for that woman’s reaction – and she’s not alone. I often receive a multitude of suspicious and fearful looks when I wear my spooky favourites. It seems that some folks see Halloween as a sign of Devil worship. Oh dear. Are some folks really so uneducated about the origins of Hallowmas, or Samhain? Satanic rituals have nothing to do with it. Don’t take my word for it; here are two articles you can read on the topic, one from an academic perspective at the Open University and the other from a religious point of view.

Samhain, to put it simply, marks the end of summer and the start of the darker half of the year, when people would gather their harvest and honour the dead. Traditionally, people would have worn spooky costumes in the belief that spirits would not have bothered their own kind since they believed that the veil between worlds was at its thinnest on All Hallows’ Eve.

What on earth has that to do with Devil worship? Precisely nothing.

Or maybe not? 666 views on yesterday’s Tiktok post, lol

Roll on Halloween!

Posted by on October 28, 2024 in Opinion and tagged , , , , , .

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October 24, 2024

Myths about creative writing

There are so many misconceptions about writing and publishing that I thought I’d sift through a few of the most common beliefs and see what’s true or false. Want to grab a coffee and join me? Alright then, let’s go.

Common myth 1: Everyone has a book in them

Nope. Afraid not. That funny yarn from Aunty Mabel or the odd thing you heard about Bob while gossiping in the office kitchen won’t necessarily turn into an entertaining fictional story.

Continue reading →

Posted by on October 24, 2024 in Opinion and tagged , , .

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October 20, 2024

Happy one year bookiversary for Matthew’s Twin!

It’s the one year publishing anniversary of Book 3 in my ‘Belfast Ghosts’ series, Matthew’s Twin. It was released on 20th October 2023 and completed the trilogy.

If you think that’s the end of my stint of ghost books, however, think again. I’m close to completion of the final draft of a ghost story collection due to be released in early 2025, and I’m also around 53k words into the first draft of a ghostly novel that also has a good dose of witchcraft.

But, back to Matthew’s Twin! If you like vengeful ghosts and murderous witches, then you should check out the final book in my Belfast Ghosts trilogy. It’s a good Halloween read that will leave you feeling rather disturbed…

Posted by on October 20, 2024 in Publishing and tagged , , , , , , .

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October 16, 2024

My book in Belfast Central Library’s Halloween display

It’s starting to feel quite Halloweeny! The weather has taken a much colder turn over here in Northern Ireland, though I’m enjoying all the gorgeous autumn colours. Taking a dander (walk) through crunchy autumnal leaves is very restorative.

Halloween 365! (With writing is my sanity tee)

This week, my fellow horror-loving bestie texted me a photo of my debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road, in the Halloween display at Belfast Central Library. Never one to pass up a spooky book display, I decided to head on over to the city centre to check it out for myself, while doing a spot of spooky shopping.

Spooky booky! (Like my Halloween T-shirt?)

Btw, there were lots of people in the library; I simply took photos and filmed the video in a way that didn’t show people between the shelves or at tables to respect their privacy. Central Library is a busy, thriving community library in Belfast. Hurray!

Like my Halloween T-shirt? Can I mention again for the hundred-millionth time that I love Halloween, just in case you missed that little piece of Leilanie trivia? Although I wear my multitude of Halloween leggings, T-shirts and dresses all year round, Samhain is the socially acceptable time of year for me to parade around in my witchy cosplay with barely a second glance.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I don’t have a lot of news other than I’m still chipping away at my three WIPs, still teaching creative writing, whittling down my spooky TBR pile and writing to you, dear reader.

Happy hump day, people!

Posted by on October 16, 2024 in promotion and tagged , , , , .

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October 12, 2024

How to support an author

Are authors rich? Not the majority.

Is book marketing easy for an author? Again, I’m going to say, not for most.

So, how can you help, dear reader?

Supporting authors is pretty simple, really. Here’s my top 10 tips for easy ways to support an author:

  1. Pre-order their books. This boosts the sales ranking for their book on launch day, which gives it more visibility.
  2. Buy their books. Same reason as above, plus you’ll make the author’s day.
  3. Read their books on KU. If you have a subscription, it’s part of your plan, and they’ll get paid for the page reads.
  4. Recommend their books. Word of mouth goes a long way.
  5. Share their posts. Even when people are scrolling quickly through their feed, a book image will stick in their mind and they might just decide to buy it.
  6. Follow their social media. That way you’ll get all their latest book alerts, or find out about any discount promos on their back titles.
  7. Write book reviews. More reviews helps readers decide if a book is for them – or not (latter point steers the wrong readers away from the chances of bad reviews).
  8. Leave ratings. This boosts visibility, helping to put their book in the path of the right readers.
  9. Attend their book events. Chatting to an author about their books, even if you are just browsing not buying, is motivation for them to keep writing. Authors need to know they have an audience.
  10. Borrow their books from libraries. It’s free for you, and the author still gets paid (in a similar way to getting page reads on Kindle Unlimited). Plus, you’re supporting your local library in a time of funding cuts and closures. Win-win for author, reader and library!

Posted by on October 12, 2024 in Opinion, Reading and tagged , , , , , , , .

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October 8, 2024

A new literary venture – back to teaching creative writing

This month I’m back to teaching creative writing. It’s a new venture that coincided with the new moon on 2nd October. If ever there was a time for new beginnings, fresh starts and the potential for growth, as per new moon symbolism, this would be it for me.

I’m running the classes for 6th form at the grammar school where I work as part of their enrichment sessions. It’s good to be back to running creative writing classes after eight years. I previously held classes at two schools in London: Battersea Park School (now Harris Academy, Battersea) and Sacred Heart High School, covering all of the usual basics such as point of view, characterisation and plot, as well as chapter planning for longer works. With both groups, the end goal was producing an anthology to showcase their work.

This time around will be quite similar, except I’ll be giving them more homework assignments too, especially to help keep them focused on producing word counts targets each week and working to deadlines. It’s all part of the writing process for any author, as we know.

Anyway, getting back to teaching creative writing has meant that some other things are taking a temporary backseat: in this case, Bindweed Anthologies. After the last creative writing group at Sacred Heart High School finished in 2016, I started up Bindweed, so it’s fun to bring things full circle again by starting up a new creative writing class. It’s great to be able to help others with their literary life, in addition to managing my own writing. Plus, on a personal note, it’s lovely to engage my brain again by balancing the literary needs of others. There are a mix of creative types in the class: poets, non-fiction bloggers, one screen-play writer and the rest being a mix of short story authors and novelists-in-the-making. Planning writing activities to meet the needs of all is a welcome challenge that shakes off the dust-bunnies in my brain.

Everything in balance.

Posted by on October 8, 2024 in Writing and tagged , , , .

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